Will Potatoes Boost Water Supplies?

A new technology to extract water from potatoes is currently being perfected by PepsiCo, which also owns the crisps manufacturer, Walkers. Potatoes are 75 percent water, and when the slices are cooked, this water is normally released into chimneys inside the factories. PepsiCo will instead capture the water, treat it and reuse it for washing, peeling and slicing. Once the process is perfected, they may be able to remove their factories from the water mains altogether. Later, they also hope to be able to replace drinking water supplies with this water, and even provide drinking water to those in areas suffering from drought.

The optimist in me is hopeful for those suffering due to the lack of water. The pessimist on my right shoulder is singing a different tune, however. Right now, Pepsi brings in millions from bottled water sales – which they recently admitted is municipally sourced and filtered. What’s to stop them from using this water for the same purpose? Advances in technology are in many cases utilized for one purpose – profit. I hope PepsiCo isn’t just greenwashing this time…